Giving up 100 points in a college basketball game is never easy to swallow.

Surrendering that many points to an archrival makes life even tougher.

And watching someone crack the century mark when you pride yourself on defense can take a team to the brink of insanity.

Such was life for Missouri on Monday night, which lost to No. 2 Kansas University, 103-86, at Allen Fieldhouse, the Tigers’ 12th-straight setback in Lawrence.

“You gotta give credit to Kansas, they’re a real good team,” said Mizzou junior Laurence Bowers, who led the Tigers with 19 points. “Obviously, we all know that. But I don’t think we played the best defense that we could’ve played. We gave up 103 points, and that’s very unlike us.”

Missouri (18-6 overall, 4-5 Big 12) entered Monday’s Border War battle with an 83.3 points-against average per game. The fact that the Jayhawks (23-1, 8-1) blew that mark out of the water was bad enough. The way they did it caused some head-scratching.

“I thought they played a whale of a second half,” Missouri coach Mike Anderson said of Kansas. “They went on one of those spurts where they really just made a lot of threes and just kind of got the game expanded to their benefit.”

Kansas had plenty to do with MU’s shortcomings. The Jayhawks shot 67 percent from the floor in the second half — 61 percent for the game — including 6-of-10 shooting from three-point range in the second 20 minutes.

“Kansas is a team that can score,” Anderson said. “And they really hit some tough shots. They hit a lot of those threes that kind of broke your back.”

Added MU guard Phil Pressey (17 points): “I’ve been watching film on them for the past couple of days, and those shots they were hitting kind of surprised me. I mean, I know he (KU senior Mario Little, 17 points) can shoot, and he’s a D-I basketball player, but it just kind of surprised us. He played well. Seven-for-nine, that’s a good game for anybody in this conference.”

Although KU’s deft touch from distance crippled the Tigers, Anderson said the difference in the game was the way KU changed its attack in the second half.

“They really kind of took the fight to us,” Anderson said. “I think they established that they were going inside.”

That was the idea, said KU coach Bill Self, who actually praised the Tigers’ first-half defense.

“To be honest with you, the way they guarded us in the first half was perfect,” Self said. “They kept us on the perimeter and didn’t allow us to throw it in to our bigs.”

By game’s end, three MU players had fouled out, and Kansas had rolled up its highest point total against Missouri since drubbing the Tigers, 105-73, in January of 2002. What’s more, KU’s 57 points in the second half were the most given up by Mizzou this season. The previous high came when Northern Illinois scored 44 in a 97-61 loss at Missouri two days after Christmas.

“We scored enough points to win the game,” Pressey said. “I just thought on the defensive end it was a poor job by us, and we’re gonna have to get better at it.”

Added Anderson: “I don’t know if anybody would say a lot of defense was played, but a lot of scoring took place.”

I've tried to find a transcript and can't, but what I heard Anderson say to Holly Rowe at halftime was that they were playing "great defense". At the time I thought he was high on something, but I suppose it's possible that he just meant to say "offense". Let's hope.

This was a fun game....loved seeing us get into such a terrific offensive rhythm. Mario playing some guard was a joy to watch. I'm curious, was anyone else surprised that MU didn't play their usual "helter skelter" style? About 5 minutes into the game, I was thinking that this was not a Mike Anderson team I had seen play before. The whole thing came as a bit of a shock to me (MU playing a disciplined game). I was curious as to what others think.....

I am also supprised that MU wasn't pressing. If they had been pressing I think KU would have blown them out the first half. My guess is that Anderson knew that he couldn't press KU. I am surprised also that KU didn't play better defense. The second half KU started playing their "matador" defense on MU's guards driving the basket.

MU couldn't press because we were ON FIRE! They tried and we broke it down every time. It was a good learning experience on how to destroy the press. To quote Richard Scott when we played Arkansas..."It looked like 40 minutes of heck to me". Anderson was at Arkansas under Nolan Richardson and he commented about bringing the 40 minutes of hell to Mizzou. I guess they forgot to set the timer??

I think that Taylor should get a lot of credit in this game too. Granted, he missed quite a few in close shots and his percentage wasn't good, but he was aggresive. More often than not, if he missed it, it opened up the floor and one of our other guys put it back in. I thought he did a great job of being someone who was not afraid to attack, that helped a lot.

ralster... I find myself torn, i love Coach Anderson... jsut wish to high hell he would go anywhere but Mizzou.....I was thoroughly impressed watching Ratliffe and Bowers on the Post, I figured we would punk them out on the post all night long and they Palyed stand up basketball.... Dixon and English were not doing anythign but most of Mizzou played inpired ball.... and if it weren't for the negativite history I would be saluting them.....

We all should be proud of the effort the kids put out there for us today.... beyond jsut the subs, who were awesome.... the whole team.... Markieff's forearms incluced..... I'm not so sure what all the ruckus is..... In hocke they call that a fashwash....

see aroudn the :44 second mark.... You see, in Hockey they get sweat and ice and all sorts of nastiness inside their gloves.... their pads in general end up being a disgusting smelly mess..... it doesn't so much hurt as much as it is meant to intimidate your opponent.... which, I think we did a good job of....